Assemble 200 preschoolers and hand out small packages of saltines. Then instruct them to open and eat them together on the count of three. Imagine the sound. Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle! Crunch, crunch, crunch! That’s what it sounds like in my front yard these days. But it’s not cracker-munching kids making a racket, it’s squirrels.
Our neighbors have a Blue Spruce that’s growing into the branches of a Shagbark Hickory tree right next to our driveway. The squirrels are building a winter nest in the spruce using the crunchy dried-up leaves of the hickory.
I thought it was just one squirrel, but once I got my camera out and started shooting, I realized one squirrel was gathering the leaves while the other stayed in the nest and rustled and crunched them into position. Then they switched jobs.
It must be an upscale nest because they’ve been working on it for well over a week already. When you step outside, you can’t help but laugh. Is someone in the tree wrapping presents with cellophane?
Back and forth they ran, shoving as many leaves as they could into their tiny mouths and scampering back to the nest.
There was an obvious downside to that method, however. One of the squirrels was repeatedly distracted by dried leaf bits stuck to his tongue. Perhaps it was time for a new strategy.
Usually when squirrels are in a tree, they pay no attention to what I’m doing on the ground, but this pair was particularly paranoid. One of the beasts spotted me and we had a 60-second stare-down. He didn’t budge until I went back into the house:
I watched from the living room window as they cautiously searched for more onlookers. Once the commotion started again, I slipped back outside.
During the short time I was in the house, the squirrels must have had a meeting to discuss the operation. They decided that cramming leaves into their mouths was too messy, and it was much simpler to gnaw off the tree branches with the leaves still intact.
My stealth mode could definitely use some work. I was detected again and all action ground to a halt:
I decided to let them construct their castle in peace, but not before sneaking one last photo:
